Medal game is often a mental one at the Olympics

Bode Miller, Meghan Duggan, Julia Mancuso

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Although skiers Bode Miller, left, and Julia Mancuso, right, appreciated the fact that they received bronze medals for their efforts at the Sochi Olympics, Meghan Duggan and her women's hockey teammates felt disappointment in taking the silver.

Although skiers Bode Miller, left, and Julia Mancuso, right, appreciated the fact that they received bronze medals for their efforts at the Sochi Olympics, Meghan Duggan and her women's hockey teammates felt disappointment in taking the silver. (Getty Images)

The morning after losing in overtime to rival Canada, the U.S. women's hockey players talked about the anguish of walking away from the Sochi Olympics with silver medals around their necks.

"We didn't train as hard as we did for second place," forward Meghan Duggan said. "It's one of those things we have to swallow."

Contrast her words with the sigh of relief from Bode Miller a few days earlier. The ski racer acknowledged making a big mistake on the super-G course, saying he felt "really lucky" to hang on for bronze.

"With silver, you're just one person away," said skier Julia Mancuso, who has medals of every color from the last three Olympics. "But with bronze, it's like, I could have been totally off the podium."

More than a century ago, in "The Principles of Psychology," William James wrote about the paradox of "a man shamed to death because he is only the second pugilist or the second oarsman in the world. That he is able to beat the whole population of the globe minus one is nothing; he has 'pitted' himself to beat that one; and as long as he doesn't do that nothing else counts."

Researchers from Cornell and Toledo examined this notion after the 1992 Barcelona Games, studying the emotional reactions of silver and bronze medalists on the podium and in post-competition interviews.

They were testing the concept of "counterfactual thinking" which — in the Olympics — can work two ways.

"Silver medalists may torment themselves with counterfactual thoughts of, 'If only…' or 'Why didn't I just,'" the study concluded. "Bronze medalists, in contrast, may be soothed by the thought that, 'At least I won a medal.'"

One of the researchers, Scott F. Madey, now a psychology professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, said: "It runs counterintuitive to the idea of medal standings, one, two, three."

Gymnast McKayla Maroney might be the poster girl for this theory. At the 2012 London Olympics, she fell on the vault and settled for silver, her smirk prompting a breakout series of Internet memes.

At these Games, many of the top American athletes have fallen short in other ways.

Lindsey Vonn did not even make it to Sochi, unable to recover from a knee injury, and Shaun White failed to defend his snowboard halfpipe title. Four-time medalist Shani Davis came up empty in long-track speedskating and Kikkan Randall, considered a top contender in women's cross-country, lost in the quarterfinals of the sprint event.

Given those disappointments, not all of the silver medalists were unhappy.

"It's the best feeling in the entire world," slopestyle skier Gus Kenworthy said after sharing the podium with two other Americans. "I don't even have words to say."

And not all bronze medalists were thrilled with their result. Hannah Kearney, the defending champion in moguls, spoke of being "downgraded to third place."

"I was really hoping it would be gold, so it's really disappointing to read headlines like, 'The favorite was beaten by two other people,'" she said, adding: "Things don't always go as you planned."

But the difference between second and third could not have been more obvious at the Sanki Sliding Center last Wednesday evening.

The American duo of Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams arrived in Sochi expecting to win the two-man bobsled. Meyers seemed crestfallen after brushing the wall several times on the final run and finishing 0.1 of a second behind the winner.

Jamie Greubel and Aja Evans came in third that night, a full second off the pace, but were grinning and blowing kisses.

"I'm going to be an Olympic medalist for the rest of my life," Evans said. "And that feels amazing."

Having won two silvers at the 2010 Vancouver Games, Mancuso said the reality of second place can hit harder with time, explaining: "It's the next day when you're like, 'Oh, I kind of wish I'd won gold."

Maybe that's why the women's hockey players sounded so distraught the day after their loss to Canada. Duggan suggested that "We will get through this heartache."

Her teammate, Amanda Kessel, did not sound so sure.

"It just hasn't completely sunk in," the forward said. "I'm almost in shock and completely numb."